Chittenango resident Gladys Musser celebrates 100th birthday

CHITTENANGO -- Gladys Musser of Chittenango celebrated her centennial birthday at Stonehedge Health and Rehabilitation Center on Nov. 3 with friends and family from as far away as Albuquerque, N.M.

Musser grew up as a child in Columbus near New Smyrna. She attended school in Fabius.

Musser had eight siblings, four of whom still live in the area. Brother Harry and Terry Stewart still live in Fabius. Her sister, Elizabeth Stewart who recently turned 101, and her other sister Arlene Lang, 87, live in Canastota. All five of her brothers fought in World War II.

Musser married Leman Ford and had three children: Catherine Moore of Rochester, Eugene Ford of Albuquerque and Francis Ford who passed in his infancy.

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The couple lived on a farm on Cedar Street in Morrisville until they lost the land because they lacked proper ownership. They moved from area to area in Central New York, eventually settling in Munnsville where Musser cooked for a few years.

After Ford passed in the late '50s, Musser moved to Texas where she stayed for a few years and remarried. She became a registered nurse and worked in an orphanage in Dallas.